1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a thermal transfer printing method wherein a web of record medium and a carrier sheet or carrier web having a coat of dry ink melted by heat which is applied to the surface of the carrier sheet or carrier web are brought into overlapping relation and pressed together as they are moved between a platen roller and a printhead including a plurality of individual thermal elements, and the thermal elements are selectively energized to transfer the ink of the coat of dry ink from the carrier web to the web of record medium, to perform recording of images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, in a thermal transfer printer, a carrier web 1 including a base in film form and a coat of dry ink adapted to be melted by heat and a web 2 of recording medium, which may be ordinary paper, are moved, as shown in FIG. 1, in a subscanning direction. They are brought into overlapping relation and pressed together between a printhead 3 including a plurality of individual thermal elements corresponding to one line which are arranged in a main scanning direction and a platen roller 4, to successively perform recording by thermal trnasfer printing techniques data corresponding to one line. When the thermal transfer printer is of a direct heating type, the printhead 3 may be in the form of a thermal head in which heat generating materials are used for thermal elements. When the thermal transfer printer is of an electrically heated type (in which the base of the carrier web in film form is formed of a conductive material to utilize Joule heat), a head provided with a multiple needle electrode and return electrodes may be used. In FIG. 1, the numeral 5 designates a stripper plate for causing the carrier web 1 to make a sharp turn as it is separated from the web 2 of record madium to enable the coat of ink to be efficiently transferred from the carrier web 1 to the web of record medium.
In this type of heat transfer printer, it has hitherto been usual practice to use for the web 2 of record medium paper of specific quality which has good affinity with ink and which has a specific background color lest the background color of the web 2 of record medium should adversely affect the recorded images (particularly when color images are recorded). Moreover, the thermal transfer printer of the prior art has suffered the disadvantage that, owing to inability to come into intimate contact with each other, the carrier web 1 and the web 2 of record medium might be displaced from each other when they are brought to overlapping relation, resulting in a displacement of images recorded on the web 2 of record medium by transfer printing.